1755
English lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary of the English Language.
1784
The first balloon is flown in Ireland.
1813
U.S. troops under James Wilkinson lay siege to the Spanish-held city of Mobile in future state of Alabama.
1858
At the Battle of Azimghur, the Mexicans defeat Spanish loyalists.
1861
President Lincoln mobilizes Federal army.
1865
Abraham Lincoln dies from John Wilkes Booth‘s assassination bullet.
1871
‘Wild Bill’ Hickok becomes the marshal of Abilene, Kansas.
1912
With her band playing on the deck, the ocean liner Titanic sinks at 2:27 a.m. in the North Atlantic.
1917
British forces defeat the Germans at the Battle of Arras.
1923
The first sound films shown to a paying audience are exhibited at the Rialto Theater in New York City.
1923
Insulin becomes generally available for people suffering with diabetes.
1940
French and British troops land at Narvik, Norway.
1945
President Franklin D. Roosevelt is buried on the grounds of his Hyde Park home.
1948
Arab forces are defeated in battle with Israeli forces.
1952
President Harry Truman signs the official Japanese peace treaty.
1955
Ray Kroc starts the McDonald’s chain of fast food restaurants.
1959
Cuban leader Fidel Castro begins a U.S. goodwill tour.
1960
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizes at Shaw University.
1971
North Vietnamese troops ambush a company of Delta Raiders from the 101st Airborne Division near Fire Support Base Bastogne in Vietnam. The American troops are on a rescue mission.
1986
U.S. warplanes attack Libya.
Today in History: Born on April 15
1452
Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, scientist and visionary
1684
Catherine I, empress of Russia
1741
Charles Wilson Peale, portrait painter and inventor
1800
Sir James Clark Ross, Scottish explorer who located the Magnetic North Pole.
1832
Wilhelm Busch, German painter and poet, created the precursor to the comic strip.https://ab612c9a00732a1ea988fd7059c2aef7.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
1843
Henry James, writer and critic.
1874
George Harrison Shull, American botanist, developer of hybrid corn.
1874
Johannes Stark, Novel Prize-winning German physicist.
1880
Max Wertheimer, Czech-born psychologist.
1889
Asa Phillip Randolph, American labor leader and Civil Rights advocate.https://ab612c9a00732a1ea988fd7059c2aef7.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
1889
Thomas Hart Benton, painter, muralist.
1898
Bessie Smith, American blues singer.
1904
Arshile Gorky, abstract painter.
1922
Neville Mariner, conductor.
1922
Harold Washington, first black mayor of Chicagohttps://ab612c9a00732a1ea988fd7059c2aef7.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
1932
Eva Figes, British novelist.
1940
Jeffrey Archer, English novelist and politician (Kane and Abel, Honor Among Thieves).
